Traveller
06-07-2005, 15:38
TKS, the Greeks were south of the Latins, not North, in cities like Tarentum etc.
Mircoslavux, in the last year our archeologists discovered remains (human and animal sceletons, pottery, agricultural instruments etc.) from 8000-8300 years ago, which is so far the oldest discovered European civilization, ofcourse unnamed. I'll see if I could find something on English, but I doubt it - foreign medias aren't very interested in "some small stupid country in the dumpyard of Europe", although it's third in Europe (after Greece and Italy) by the number of archeological sites. Anyway, I'll see what I can find... :cheers:
Ok, now I'll write and copy something about my favourite Bulgarian ruler - Khan Tervel (700 or 702 - 718), renowned by many Western annalists as a "saviour of Europe"; a very honourable man; the first foreigner to receive the Byzantine title Caesar, which is second only to the emperor and much more.
Here's something from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tervel):
Khan Tervel or Tarvel, or Terbelis in some Byzantine sources, was the khan of the Bulgars from 700 or 701-718. Not only did he consolidate the Bulgarian settlements in area bordering modern Bulgaria and Romania, but developments of the neighboring Byzantine empire also expanded his domain southwards through favorable treaties and ensured him the upper hand in diplomatic relations between the two states.
Khan Tervel succeeded in either 701 or 702 after his father Asparukh presumably killed in a battle against the Khazars. Shortly afterwards, the deposed emperor Justinian II fled to his place and lured his support. With an army of 15,000 horsemen Justinian suddenly pounced upon Constantinople and slew his rivals Leontius and Tiberius III, with thousands of their partisans, and once more ascended the throne in 704. Justinian awarded Tervel the marriage of his daughter, title of Caesar which made him second only to the emperor and the first foreigner in Byzantine history to receive such a title, and the best of all, the strategic region of Zagora in eastern Thrace.
Justinian II struggled in the following years attempting to recapture Zagora. Tervel routed him at the Battle of Anchialus or Anchialo in 708 and raided through Thrace to siege the Byzantine capital in 712. In the famous treaty of 716, the Byzantines paid annual tribute to Tervel, furthered their commercial relations and recognized the border in Thrace, where the Bulgars would retain Zagora. Arabic expansion at the expense of the Byzantine Empire presumably precipitated the truce...
Here we continue the story with a quote from the book of the Bulgarian historian Bozhidar Dimitrov, "The Bulgarians - The first Europeans", that I have translated:
The Bulgarian country - Guardian of Europe in the early Middle ages
Chapter Eight
The appearance of Bulgaria - one stable, civilized and military strong state in the European East has incredibly favourable consequences for the European civilization. Even only because it's armies stop the barbaric waves, periodically pouring themselves from Asia towards Western Europe and ruining the population and it's economy. The barbarians just had nowhere to go through, except through the territories of Bulgaria. And there they quickly realised on their own expense that the Bulgarians are good warriors. It's true - Bulgaria and Byzantium would often have problems, but they concern only the rule over territories inhabited by Slavs. Never has the Bulgarian political thought put an aim to completely destroy Byzantium or to join to the territory of Bulgaria regions inhabited by non-Slavic population. Adding to this, the short military clashes are being followed by thirty-fourty and even half-century periods of peace. This allowed Byzantium, descendant of the ancient European civilization, to survive another eight centuries, to preserve the achievements of the ancient cultural and technological heritage and to transfer it to Europe - in many cases by the transmision called Bulgaria.
For the Europeans, who know that the Old Continent was saved in the VIII century from the first aggression of Islam in the battle at Poatie in 732 AD by the forces of Karl Martel, we will remind that the Arab invasion in this age goes simultaneously through the two entrances of Europe - the Gibraltar and the Bosphorus. And, that if the Arabs still managed to sneak through the Gibraltar and conquer for a long time the Iberian peninsula before being stopped in 732 AD at Poatie by Karl Martel, at the Bosphorus they were mercilessly crushed by the Bulgarians, thrown out of Europe and repelled deep into Asia for quite a long time. Despite that in this point the Arabs attack Europe with much larger forces, than from the Gibraltar. Karl Martel fought against 6000 Arab warriors at Poatie with 7000 Frankish soldiers, while the Bulgarians must deal with nearly 100 000 Arab invaders.
The events deserve to be described - testimonies for them have been left by many Arab, Greek, Latin and Bulgarian contemporaries of the battles. Crushing the Byzantine forces in Asia Minor the Arab army crossed over to Europe and sieges the capital of Constantinople in 717 AD. The city was tightly surrounded, the supplies were nearly over, a hunger broke out and it's fall seemed inevitable.
Suddenly the Bulgarian army arrived at the hills in front of the Arab camp. The people of Constantinople got worried in the first moment - they hadn't asked help from the Bulgarians, even only because a few years ago the waged war with them for one Slavic region. They thought that the Bulgarians will make use of their troubled situation, to ally with the Arabs and put an end to the Empire. But after the Bulgarians slaughtered in front of their eyes some wandering outside of the camp Arab detachments, they were assured an unexpected ally had come.
The Bulgarian involvement obviously wasn't provoked by a desire for territorial expansion - after the events the Bulgarians, withdrew without any claims for compensation. Their opposition to the Arabs was obviously connected with the arising consciousness of a beloning to one community - the community of the European Christian civilization, against whose values stood a mighty foe, who had nothing in common with it. And although Christianity wasn't yet accepted as an official religion in Bulgaria, it was professed by a big part of the population and also by the Bulgarian ruler Khan Tervel. That's why in this case the constant hostilities with Byzantia were quickly forgotten in the name of the general survival of the Christians.
The Arab forces, although between two fires (the garrison of Constantinople and the Bulgarian army) were still considerably much more numerous than the both allies alltogether. But their commanders didn't decide to engage in a general battle with the Bulgarians. Although being superb horsemen, the Arabs didn't had enough armoured horse warriors, while the Bulgarian army had 30 000 of them. That's why they closed thmselves in their camp, that had surrounded Constantinople from all sides, and continued their siege.
But things had already changed. The Byzantine fleet had pulled themselves together, got out of the Bosphorus and inflicted in a few battles heavy defeats on the Arab fleet. Thus it secured the shipment of supplies for Constantinople and stopped atleast by sea the Arab food supplies for their camp. By land, this was a care for the Bulgarians - the Arab ration detachments were being killed by the Bulgarian light cavalry for not less than a mile from the camp. Now hunger broke out in the Arab camp.
Still, the Arabs managed to hold on for a whole year. Only in the summer of 718 AD their army got out of the camp and formed up in battle positions against the Bulgarians. This was obviously an act of desperation, the Arab commanders knew they stand no chance against the Bulgarian armoured cavalry, that stood bored near the hills of Constantinople for a whole year already. And indeed, the Arab cavalry, that attacked first, was literally crushed for minutes from the armoured horses and warriors of Bulgaria. The Frankish authors give different numbers for the Arabs, killed from the Bulgarians. Zigibert writes that "the Bulgarians destroyed 30 000 Saracens", the monk Alberik calculates the Arab casualties to 32 000. The number of the dead in this case isn't so important - the more important thing is that with the Arab invasion in Europe was over. The Arabs were not only thrown out of Europe, but were also hunted down by Bulgarian-Byzantine troops in Asia Minor all the way to the borders with Byzantium from before the conflict. With this, the Christian barrier against the Islam was rebuild again and would hold on for another whole seven centuries. Only the second aggression of Islam in XIV-Xv century, this time led by the Ottoman Turks, would end with the defeat of Bulgaria and Byzantia, who didn't manage to unite against the common enemy, as in the VIII century. And the lack of help for the Christian East from the Christian West in the XIV century would bring Islam to the walls of Viena, Venice and Warsaw. But this is another topic...
I'm sorry for the not-so-good translation! :rolleyes:
Traveller
08-07-2005, 13:23
Phew, I finally translated the material I promised. Here's something about Cyril and Methodius from another point of view. I've translated a part of a book of the same author again, because he writes nice and understandably popular. I appologize it's so long, but I decided not to shorten it (I'm not good at retelling things). Hope you'll have the patience to read it and that it'll be an interesting reading for you!
Bozhidar Dimitrov, "12 Myths In The Bulgarian History"
Myth 7
The Myths of Cyril and Methodius's work
In the beginning of the second half of the IXth century two brothers, Byzantine subjects, created an alphabet on Bulgarian (or Slavic language - the two concepts were already synonyms) language and translated the liturgical books.
After a number of peripeties, that we will tell of later, the alphabet and their books were carried in 886 AD to Bulgaria from three of their students, who, having the support of the state and personally of Tzar Boris I (852-889), intensively started to create schools, in which to train literate in the new writing young men, and scriptoriums, where the liturgical books would be multiplied. In 893 AD, already having the needed number of literate priests and laity, also of the needed ammount of books, Tzar Boris I succeeded to pass a decision in a Nations Council (the high authority of power in Medieval Bulgaria), with which the new writing was declared as an official language in the Bulgarian state and church. And this writing is still official for country and church today. Already in the Xth century Bulgarian missionaries managed to impose this alphabet in Russia and in the Serbian principalities. Today this alphabet is being written in countries from the Adriatic sea to the Pacific ocean. These are such like Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, Belorussia, Russia (Bul. ed. Also some of the ex-Soviet countries and Mongolia).
The brothers Cyril and Methodius are proclaimed as saints already in the Middle ages by both the Orthodox and the Catholic church. And by Pope John Paul II in 1979 - as Patrons of Europe, together with the earlier declared as Patron St. Benedict.
In the Bulgarian historiography and historic publicism, as strange as it may sound, despite the dozens of thousands of publications, there isn't one solid academical monography, devoted to the work of the two brothers, which would analise scrupulously the sources of the life and work of Cyril and Methodius. Like if the scholars are afraid to touch the history of one work that had (without overstatement) global consequences to the history of human civilization. Perhaps because of this, everything writen for the two brothers, due to the not deep enough analysis of the sources in the shorter forms of scientific search (articles and studies), created a few myths around this part of our past. The only little excuse both for the historians and the historic publicists is that the ancient sources on this matter are myths themselves, i. e. church passionals of the two brothers and their students. It is strange, but their life and work have not been noticed from their contemporary Medieval chroniclers and historians.
The mythology around Cyril and Methodius could be divided on three groups.
The first one is of the historians, connected with the church. They believe that because they belong to the high circles of one country of Christianity, such as Byzantium, it's natural that they would have the aspiration to convert as much as possible pagans to Christianity. And they believed that this would happen much easier if Christianity is being preached on their own speaking language. Slavs, by origin, or knowing perfectly the spoken Slavic language, the two brothers do the necessary - they create a Slavic alphabet, translate the liturgical books and so on. The motive for action of the two brothers is therefore their missionary and Christian passion.
The civil historians created a second mythological line. Without denying the Christian missionary passion of the two brothers, they emphasize on the fact that they both, before they start creating Slavic writing and translations, are high Byzantine government officials. Methodius is a regional governor and after this, together with Constantine-Cyril - a diplomat for particularly important government missions. Civil historians believe that the alphabet and the translations were created because of an order of the Byzantine emperor and approved by the Byzantine patriarch, in an obvious violation of the trilingual dogma (according to which, Christianity can be practised only on Greek, Latin and Jewish (Bul. ed. Hebrew, ancient Arameic?)), in connection with one purely political mission, although realised with religious means. And the point of this mission is the joining of the country of Velikomoravia in the sphere of influence of Byzantium and it's extraction from the orbit of the Holy Roman Empire - a competitor of Byzantium in it's claims for being a legitimate heir to the universal Christian state - a projection of God's kingdom on Earth. Byzantium has no other way to establish it's influence, because it doesn't have a direct border with Velikomoravia (they're divided by the large territory of Bulgaria in that direction from the Rhodope mountains to the Balaton) and it sees a great possibility to take control of the country in church aspect, putting it's attendants at the head of it's eparchies. In the political plans of Byzantium, the destruction of Bulgaria is a strategical goal - that's why it wasn't provided for the Slavic alphabet and liturgies to be given to our country. Here Byzantium had achieved a strategical success, imposing in 864 AD Christianity to be preached on Greek. Through liturgies on Greek, enforced also to the government administration, Byzantium hopes to gradually erode the national consciousness of the Bulgarian administrative and spiritual elite, and from there of the whole nation and government structures. Due to this fact Cyril and Methodius were never allowed to preach in Bulgaria. And the fact they never did is a proof that in their work the brothers were led by political, not religious motives, by staying loyal subjects of Byzantium for the rest of their lives. The transfer and establishment of the Slavic writing is only a secondary result of their work, that happened by the will of a historical chance (the arrival of three of the 200 students in Bulgaria).
The third and latest myth is an offspring of a badly (and consciously) interpreted information from the previous two mythological groups of publicists in the last 15 years. The mythology is mainly in the valuation of their work. The authors say that we don't need to praise the work of the two brothers with such a pomposity, because they were Byzantine agents, who don't give even two cents about Bulgaria. And the establishment of their alphabet (or actually their idea for an own alphabet, because now we write on an alphabet created by St. Clement of Ohrid) was a real disaster, because it drawed us away from the values of European civilization, one of which is the Latin alphabet. With especially "tragic" force this "fact" is valid today, unabling the Internet users to converse world-globally with the Latin alphabet. I won't discuss this myth, because these statements are considerably under the level even of this yet a popular book. I'll only note that the barely literate man stays barely literate, no matter what kind of a modern label he puts on himself - globalist, citizen of the world and so on.
But the first two myths deserve a serious attention. In order to know what exactly happened betwen 855-893 it is necessary to make clear who is the warrantor of the alphabet and what are the personal motives of the brothers to start this work, submitting their whole life on it.
Let's see what's sure. Constantine-Cyril and Methodius Strahota were born in Solun (Saloniki, Thessaloniki) in the family of a high government official, taking the second by importance office in the administration of the second largest city in the Byzantine empire. Their father was called Luv (Lev, Lav) and their mother - Maria. Atleast for her later passionals say she's a Bulgarian, to this conclusion suggests also the name of Methodius (Strahota), before he became a monk, reported again by later sources. By the way, the argue if the two brothers are Bulgarians or Greeks is completely needless, while it is absolutely clear that Cyril and Methodius, if being Greeks, couldn't have learned the Slavic Bulgarian language so good, so that they could create new words for the complicated abstract concepts in the liturgical books. The market in Solun is the place, where, as children, Cyril and Methodius could've learned the language of the Bulgarian merchants from the nearby villages, say the supporters of this thesis. First, the children, and also the high aristocrats, would've hardly been let to play at the market together with their common coevals - a whole horde of tutors in different spheres occupied them at home. And on the market Cyril and Methodius could've learned only a language with a vocabulary of 500-1000 words from the Bulgarian peasants. And in the Magnaur school in Constantinople (Bul. ed. the first, and in this time - only, university in Europe), where the brother were sent as teenagers, there was no faculty of Slavic philology. So the own mother language of the brothers really was the Slavic Bulgarian language. There is nothing strange in that. Half of Byzantium in this epoch speaks on a Slavic language, especially in it's European part, inhabitted as we saw (Bul. ed. from the previous chapters in the book) whole the way to Peloponesos, including with Slavs. Byzantium is really a country of Christianity and nobody cares for the ethnical origins of the emperor's subjects. At this time, and also before it, Slavs take all kinds of high offices in the empire - from generals to patriarchs.
The ethnical and social origins of Cyril and Methodis is still interesting, but from another point of view, and it's determining could, to a great degree, explain their motivation. In one of Cyril's passionals it is said that his grandfathers were from an aristocratical family, "close to the tzar", who fell into disgrace and was forced to emigrate (in this case to Byzantium), because of his Christian faith.
In this epoch and the 150 years before it only Bulgaria had tzars (khans), and also aristocratic families, professing the Christian faith. This is the house of Dulo, that gave the first khans to Bulgaria, but also other aristocratic families, whose representatives accepted together with Khan Kubrat the Christianity. In the wild second half of the VIIIth century, when Pliska (Bul. ed. capital of Bulgaria during this period) was shaken by dynastic fights, Christianity was also accepted by the Khans Sabin and Telerig, but after they run and settle with their followers in Byzantium.
This phrase is usually interpreted by the Cyrilo-Metodievists as a byblical quote, used from Cyril. Including the phrase that he wants to erase the disgrace from his forefather's foreheads. But I would like to hear atleast one reasonable argument against the statement that this phrase could be interpreted in a literal meaning of the written words. Or said otherwise, why couldn't we accept that Cyril and Methodius are descendants of Bulgarian aristocrats, who found a refuge in Byzantium after losing the political battle in Bulgaria in the second half of the VIIIth century.
The second thing, which is completely sure, is that the Bulgarian alphabet and it's translations were created in 855 AD. The year is confirmed not only from Greek, but also from competent Bulgarian sources, such as Chernorisetz Hrabar.
A really important information and a precise date - there is no doubt about it in any historian. Then I really wonder how nobody has asked himself a few simple questions, leading to even simpler logical answers.
First, in order to create the alphabet and the translation in 855 AD, Cyril and Methodius refuse/quit brilliant careers in the peaks of the government machine and close themselves in the solitude of the monastery cells forever. But their motivation couldn't have been a missionary Christian passion, because they have nowhere to preach and nobody to baptise in the Christian faith. The Slavs in Byzantium had been baptised 100-150 years ago and practised Christianity on Greek language. True, there were still hundreds of thousands of heathens in Bulgaria, but in order to preach there on the Slavic language, Cyril and Methodius would've needed the permission of the Byzantine emperor (who would never give it to them) and most of all - of the Bulgarian Khan Boris I, who in 855 AD was still a pagan and would remain one for another 8-9 years. To other Slavs Cyril and Methodius didn't had access - Bulgaria stood on the way north to Czechs, Poles and Serbs; while the Pechenegs and the Khazars - on the way to the Russian Slavs.
The year of the creation of the alphabet eliminates also the political motivation, suggested by the civil historians. The Byzantine emperor and the Constantinople Patriarch were not mediums, so that they could "see" in 855 AD, that in 863 AD, i.e. eight years later, the kniaz of Velikomoravia would ask them for preachers, that would bring in Velikomoravia liturgies in their own written language. To Bulgaria, and to their own Slavs, as I already wrote, the Byzantine emperors didn't have even a drop of intention to be given liturgies on their own language. Why losing a weapon that works effectively both on their own territory and in Bulgaria.
Then? Who, how and why did motivated Cyril and Methodius to quit their prespective administrative careers and to begin the hard and not-pleasing to God work on the creation of the Bulgarian alphabet, the translation of the liturgical books and their spreading? Said otherwise, who has ordered this alphabet? It's needless to say that he must definitely be a man with absolute power over hundreds of thousands or a several millions of heathens, speaking a Slavic language. Only such a man could secure a large enough field for action, deserving the efforts and sacrifices of people from the rank of Cyril and Methodius.
In that age the only Slavic country ruled by a pagan ruler us Bulgaria. It stretches across all of South-Eastern Europe. There are a few small Slavic principalities in the western part of the region, but they're in the diocese (Church region) of the Roman church. Including Velikomoravia. And from the also small at that time Russian principalities Byzantium (and this means also the Solun brothers) were divided not only from Bulgaria, but also from a large steppe, in which wild steppe non-Slavic people live - Pechenegs, Kumans, Khazars. The Bulgarian Khan Boris I took the Bulgarian throne in 852 AD. His predecessors Khan Krum (801-814) and Khan Omurtag (837-852) for a fifty year period turned Bulgaria into a stable European military, economical and political superpower. Many people lived in the country, but for the last hundred of years the Slavic language was imposed. The population also professes many different religions and pagan gods - Tangra, Perun, Lada, Volos. One considerable part of the population already professes Christianity - descendants of Kubrat's family and his followers; the remaining in the conquered lands of Thrace and Moesia Romean Christians from different origins - Thracians, Slavs, Greeks, Armenians, descendants of the taken as prisoners from Khan Krum Romean population from Adrianople-Thrace, that were moved behind the Danube territories, the newly converted from the priests Bulgarian Christians. All this population followed different laws, coming from their religions, and this fact must have worried the governmental power of Bulgaria. Bulgaria needed laws, valid for the whole people of the country, and in this age this could happen only if the population follows one religion - from this religion the laws evolve, as it is today in some Islamic countries. Again in this age only the Christian religion offered a set of laws. concerning all aspects of life. This is the so called Justinian codex, in power in Byzantium, and the perfectly well settled life in the Romean empire must have impressed the Bulgarian rulers.
From a foreign-political point of view, despite of it's military power, Bulgaria had a serious problem. The states in West, Central and South Europe were already Christianised. But pagan Bulgaria was not looked upon in an international plan as a normal European country. International treaties, made with a pagan ruler, didn't had this sacral power as a treaty between two Christian states. Their violation was not considered as such a hard oath-breaking. A country, led by a pagan ruler, in two words, despite of it's power, was not considered as an equal partner - such are only the countries that are in the "family of the Christian nations" (there was such an expression in the Middle ages). Khan Boris I, ofcourse, was aware that Bulgaria, for good or bad, will have to develop in this geopolitical region, in which Asparukh, Tervel, Krum, Omurtag, Presian have established and strenghtened it. That's why the declaration of Christianity as an official religion of Bulgaria was a necessary act from the point of view for her better international situationing.
And so, extremely serious internal- and foreign-political reasons forced the Bulgarian ruling elite to approve after 852 AD the Christianity as an official (which meant the only allowed) religion in Bulgaria. This was clear to the leader of the elite Khan Boris I even in the beginning of his rule in 852 AD. But Boris hesitated. And his main fears would've hardly been from a strong internal opposition. Khan Boris I knew well that together with all the positive results in internal and foreign aspect, Christianity, practised on Greek, could;ve bring to one fundamental negative result - the already mentioned erosion of the national identity and an inevitable death of the independent Bulgarian country. Christian religion, unlike all pagan religions, was preached through the written word. Every day a passage from the Holy scripture was being read in the church and also the passional of the day's saint and so on. Except that every pious Christian needed to read also at home - the psalter, the acts of the Apostles, the works of the so called fathers of the church etc. It's completely natural the language of the chruch to be also the language of the government administration. The Grecization of the Bulgarian people by the practice of Christianity on Greek would be only a matter of 3-4 decades. And to Khan Boris I it was clear that after converting Bulgaria into a spiritual province of Byzantium (in the multinational empire Greek was the language of church and government) it's subjugation to the empire would've followed in a short time.
Khan Boris, ofcourse, knew the means, with which he could eliminate the only potential negative impact of the Christianity in Bulgaria. This mean was it's practice on an own spoken language - in this case the Slavic-Bulgarian language, that forced itself by a natural way and was spoken from the whole population of the country. For this purpose, an alphabet needed to be created, the liturgical books to be translated and multiplied. A tough philological, literature and also production task. Yes, also production task, because for the normal functioning of 10 000 churches, which was the probable minimum number, needed for Bulgaria, were needed 200 000 books, and in order to produce them, there had to be bred, butchered and processed the skin of 10 million sheep - the books in that age were made from parchment. And the transcribing of every book (they had no printing presses at that age) took from 2 to 6 months.
There were specialists of this matter in Bulgaria - the priests and bishops of the thousands of Christians in Bulgaria were, ofcourse, literate people and knew well both Greek and Slavo-Bulgarian. Exactly such kinds of people in the Bulgarian lands had translated twice the Holy Christian scriptures to a spoken language. These are bishop Wulfila, who created the Gothic alphabet in the IVth century and translated the liturgical books, and bishop Nikita Remesianski, who created the Thracian alphabet and tranlated the books on the Tracian language, so that he could successfuly convert the Thracian tribe of Bessi, living in the Western Rhodope mountains. Today, unfortunately, there are no Gothic, nor Thracian liturgical books, but at that time such books have probably still existed, that had passed the storms of the barbar invasions, somewhere in churches and monasteries. Cyril and Methodius, themselves, had found in Chersonesos one gospel, written on "rosh letters". Specialists think that the brothers had found exactly a gospel, written on Gothic.
But Khan Boris knew another thing. If during the IV-Vth centuries everybody could create alphabets as he likes and to translate the holy Christian boks on all kinds of languages, in the second half of the IXth century this was impossible. Everything in this sphere was already politics. In the fight, that had already begun, for supremacy in the Christian world between the Roman Papacy and the Constantinople Patriarchy, the languages, on which Christianity was being preached, were a part of the weapons, and a solid part they were. The Latin was the language of the Papacy, the Greek - of Constantinople. The trilingual dogma was taken out of the naphtaline (Bul. ed. "the dust of the shelves"), according to which Christianity could be practised only on Jewish, Greek and Latin. Not that the dogma wasn't violated before - Christianity had long been preached on Ethiopian, Koptish, Armenian, Georgian... But already, and especially in Europe, it couldn't, because both the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople knew well that a new language, on which the religion could be preached, means a new power centre in Christianity, especially when, as in Bulgaria's case, it's about a European political and military superpower with a numerous population and army.
Without a doubt, Khan Boris I could easily order a team of priests from Bulgaria to make a Slavic alphabet, to translate the liturgical books, to accept himself the Christian religion, to convert all the heathens, to announce Christianity as an official religion in Bulgaria, to call a Nation's Council, that would decide Christianity to be preached on Bulgarian language. And he knew what would follow - the Papacy and the Constaninople Patriarch would immediately, based on the trilingual dogma, declare the Bulgarian alphabet as not canonical and the Bulgarians and their ruler - as heretics. This brings the desired foreign political result of accepting Christianity back to zero. Even worse. The Christian states fight with much bigger fierceness with heretics, than with heathens. Because after a victory over the heathens, they could be baptised, while from the heretics, according to the beliefs in the Middle ages, there is no use, so they should be exterminated till the last one. That's how it happened with the Albigoans in Provance, the Protestants in Germany (Bul. ed. afaik this wasn't completely done), the Hugenots in France etc.
The Slavic alphabet and writing should be created by high-standing men from one of the two centers of Christianity - Rome and Constantinople. In addition to the translations of the liturgical books, they would need to acomplish another very important thing - canonical recognition of the alphabet and the translations from Rome and Constantinople. Khan Boris looked for such people and he obviously found them in the faces of Cyril and Methodius - grandchildren of Bulgarian aristocrats in service of the high Byzantine government hierarchy. Only thus the brother’s sudden withdrawal to a monastery in 855 AD or a little before that and their work on the alphabet and translations in a moment, when they're not needed neither from the Byzantine country, nor the Byzantine church, could be explained.
One such view suggests for a contact between Khan Boris I and the two brothers, establishment of close friendly relations, sharing of plans, intentions, fears and apprehensions. And an agreement of Cyril and Methodius to work on the removal of the negative result of an eventual conversion to Christianity from Khan Boris I and the Bulgarian people.
The assumed engagement obviously included except the creation of the alphabet and the translations, the achievement of a canonical recognition of the alphabet from the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Papacy. Only then could Boris I decide to announce Christianity as an official religion in Bulgaria.
The sources, historians and historical publicists say, contain no data about contacts between Cyril and Methodius and Khan Boris I before 855 AD and after it. It's natural, in the work that Khan Boris I, Cyril and Methodius had agreed to, to also have an agreement not to "beat the drum" (Bul. ed. "spread the noise") - the Solun brothers had to keep their status as high-ranking government officials of Byzantium, working only and exclusively for the interests of Byzantium.
When did this contact between Khan Boris I and Cyril and Methodius took place? Two German scholars suppose that the contact or the contacts were realized through Ana, a sister of Boris, that studied together with Cyril in the Magnaur school. They presume even a romantic relationship between the two young Bulgarian aristocrats. But why does this relation need to be with a mediator? Cyril and Methodius are "flying" diplomats of the empire and decide complicated problems with Arabs and Khazars. Despite the peace between Bulgaria and Byzantium, in the beginning of Boris's rule there must have been some disputable argues and who else could be sent with a diplomatic mission to Bulgaria to decide them, except Cyril and Methodius? The Solun brothers know the language of the Bulgarians and are distant relatives with probably a half of the members of "The Council of the 12 great boils" - the Medieval government of Bulgaria. And maybe even to Khan Boris I himself. Indirect information about a contact between Boris I and the brothers is also their mission in the valley of Bregalniza river in Vardar Macedonia - then a part of Bulgaria. In this mission, that happened before 864 AD (the date of the announcement of Christianity as an official religion), the brothers baptised 54 000 Slav-heathens, and in the town of Raven - and Boris himself, who apparently came to a visit. Cyril and Methodius couldn't have preached without the permission of the Bulgarian governmental power in Bregalnishko, i. e. without the approval of Khan Boris I himself, and to think they've made their way illegaly into Bulgaria, is comical and naive to everyone, who knows what solid (with ramparts, ditches and a constant wooden palisade) defence is the Bulgarian border in that epoch and how merciless are the border guards - by law they shoot at sight at every trespasser, or else they're being killed. By the way that's how Tzar Boris II dies in 980 AD, unidentified from his own border guard, while he was wearing Romean clothes. Everything shows that the mission in Bregalnishko took place between 855-864 AD and was an experiment, seeking to check the suitability of the alphabet and the translations, as we would say today, "on the field of action". It's strange that scholars and publicists seem to "forget" this source ("The Bregalnishko legend"), telling of these events, or try to dispute it's reliability. It's normal - it categorically doesn't fit to the preliminary chosen thesis that Cyril and Methodius have nothing to do with Bulgaria and with Boris I. The mission of Bregalnishko has been cancelled probably from the Byzantine emperor and also the Patriarch, which were disturbed from it's success. This had meant conversion of the Bulgarian people and practice of the liturgies on their own language without the participation of the Byzantine state and Patriarchy. In front of the perspective Cyril and Methodius to be eliminated from the Byzantine government machine and the newly converted on their own language Bulgarians to be declared as heretics, the team of Boris I - the Solun brothers was forced to beat a retreat in wait for better days.
Those days come unexpectedly in 863 AD. The Velikomoravian kniaz wants preachers on a Slavic language to be sent to him from Constantinople - it's quite possible that the Bregalnishko mission of the brothers had spread through the white world, and also the availability of a Slavic alphabet and Slavic translations of the liturgical books. In Constantinople, the rulers of Byzantium had correctly ascertained that they may not have another chance to spread their influence over Velikomoravia and that the trilingual dogma, that has been violated even before, must be broken once again. The Byzantine politicians have always put the country's interests over any religious dogma - this could be acknowledged by any good specialist on Byzantine history. That's why Cyril and Methodius are taken out of the monastery, beaten the dust out of them, and the Slavic alphabet and books - blessed by the Patriarch, and who knows why - also by the emperor. That much wasn't necessary, the Patriarch's blessing was enough, because it meant CANONICAL RECOGNITION OF THE NEW ALPHABET. The fears of Boris I are over, that's why he immediately converts himself in one of the following months and announces the Christianity as an official state religion. Ofcourse, he doesn't want practising the new state religion on his own language right away. the Christians in Bulgaria till that time pray and read on Greek and are under the jurisdiction of the Druster archbishopric, which is a section of the Constantinople Patriarchy. Such an insistance would be an act of an extreme disrespect to the godfather of the Bulgarian ruler the Byzantine emperor Michail and also a reason for international complications. Boris I had planned to do this in a suitable international situation, correctly believing that in the next years there will be more important things to do and that he won't be able to do them without peaceful relations with the neighbouring countries. These things are connected with the expected internal oposition to Christianity, the subjugation (to Rome or to Constantinople) of the Bulgarian church, obtaining a certain or full autonomy of our church, it's submission in the spirit of the cesaro-papism under the will of the ruler etc. Boris I will achieve all this between 864-886 AD, In 869 AD he has a new reason for joy. In this year Pope Adrian II in Rome, again due to political reasons (seeking the help of Byzantium in order to remain on the Pope's throne) officialy sanctifies the alphabet and the books of Cyril and Methodius in the church of "Santa Maria Magiore". He believes that the two brothers are Byzantine officials and all the story with the alphabet and the books - an action of the Byzantine state. Formally this is true and it is another proof of the wise decision of the tandem Boris - Cyril and Methodius to act in this exact way and with this status of Soluners. In 869 AD they have already fulfilled the most important part of the undertaken in front of Boris I engagement - they have achieved canonical recognition of the alphabet and the liturgical books from the both legislative centers of Europe on this matter. I insist to emphasize that neither Byzantium, nor the Papacy will ever allow the use of spoken languages in liturgies again. Translators of the Holy Gospel in Holland and England will be convicted and executed in this age and the translation of the Bible to German in the XVth century will lead to a schism in the Catholic church and the appearance of Protestantism.
Unfortunately, Cyril dies in Rome in 869 AD, while Methodius is appointed archbishop of Moravia. The game should go on, leaving such an important post and the coming of Methodius in Bulgaria could make Byzantium and the Papacy to think again about their decision for the canonical status of the Slavic writing and the translations of liturgical books. According the rules of the Bulgarian political game, led by Boris, Methodius also had to end his life abroad.
But Boris I had taken care how the alphabet and the books could come to Bulgaria in the right moment. After the death of Methodius in 886 AD, his work in Velikomoravia falls under the hits of the German clergy and of the placed under the control of the German kingdom Velikomoravian Kniaz. Their nearly 200 students are arrested, thrown into prison and later sold into slavery to some Jew in Venice.
But three of them (Kliment, Naum and Angelarius) were, according to their passionals, freed from the prison, escorted by German soldiers to the Danube (at that time a border with Bulgaria) and moved to the regional Bulgarian centre in Belgrade. Then the local regional governor quickly sent them in Pliska to Boris I, who nearly died from the joy to have such people with such alphabet and such books in his hands. After leaving them to rest for the winter (unfortunately, Angelarius died), he sent Kliment to Ohrid, while Naum stayed at Pliska and he gave them the task to train priests and to arrange the production of liturgical books. The intentions of Tzar Boris I were more than clear – to have in a few years several thousands of priests, trained to read and write on their mother’s language, and several hundred thousands of liturgical books, so that one day, under the order of the Tzar and the Nation’s Council, the liturgies in all the Bulgarian churches could pass from Greek to Bulgarian language. Kliment and Naum did their job brilliantly. Only Kliment prepared over 3500 priests between 886-893 AD. Naum trained probably not less than him. In the numerous Bulgarian monasteries, built near Ohrid and Pliska with the money of the Bulgarian state, those, who had already finished the schools of Kliment and Naum, were transcribing to exhaustion the needed thousands liturgical books.
But is it really a pure historical coincidence the miraculous appearance of Kliment and Naum in Bulgaria? Who are they – Greeks, Slavs from Byzantium, Velikomoravians, as the scholars argue? Are they really an unexpected gift of fate for a successful realization of the ambitions of Boris I and the Bulgarian cause?
I’m really surprised – why none of the scholars has asked himself the question, how come Kliment and Naum have a different fate from the others 200 students of Cyril and Methodius, who were arrested and sold into slavery? Why were they freed from the prison, brought with guards to the Bulgarian border (and even to a regional city), and were helped to go across? And how did Boris I, if seeing those people for the first time, will give them such an immense assistance by entrusting, at least to Kliment, who is just a normal monk, the power in a whole region? Because, while sending him to Ohrid, Boris changes the regional governor Kotokius with another (Dometa), to whom he gives orders to obey Kliment. Both Kliment and Naum receive large sums to build scriptorium monasteries, in which the books could be rewritten and priests could be trained. In Ohrid and it’s surroundings these are “St. Panteleimon”, “St. Naum”, “St. Ivan Bigorski”, “St. Virgin Mary Immaculate” in Kichevo, “St. Archangel” in Prilep, “St. Georgi” in Ressen, Bitolia, and in the Ludogorie and Dobrudja – the monasteries in Pliska (the Big Basilica), in Preslav, Ravna, Khan Krum, Chernoglavci, Varna, Murfatlar. Is Tzar Boris a naive kind-hearted fool, entrusting so much power and money to people he didn’t knew before yesterday, especially to non-Bulgarians?
It is written in the passionals of both Kliment and Naum who are they, but who is there to read them, especially if it doesn’t fit to the preliminary composed thesis. And it is written that they are sons (and are most probably brothers) of noble parents from Moesia, i. e. of Bulgarian aristocrats. The sons of the Bulgarian nobles, as in many other Medieval countries with absolutist monarchic power, were being trained in the ruler’s royal court (that’s why the ruler in Bulgaria calls them in a number of documents as “my foster children”) and at their coming of age, they were being given appointments in the high military-administrative power.
We could hardly doubt that like all juveniles from the Bulgarian military aristocracy, Kliment, Naum and Angelarius were dreaming to have an appointment as commanders of cavalry regiments, charging in swift attacks at enemy forces, invading the territory of the Homeland. But they received appointments as… monks. The son of Boris himself – Simeon the Great, had also liked swift cavalry attacks. This could be seen in his, inadmissible from a statesmanlike point of view, personal participation in the decisive assault of the armoured cavalry corpus of the Bulgarian army in the battle at Aheloi. The king could not personally participate in battles, because, besides he loses control of the units, fighting in the battle, he could also be killed and in the centralized power in Bulgaria such a development of the events could lead to a defeat of the whole country. That’s exactly what happens after the death of Tzar Ivan Vladislav, who personally fought at the battle of Drach in 1018 AD (Bul. ed. in the same year the Byzantine emperor Basil II Bulgaroktonos (the Bulgar slayer) conquers the whole country for the next nearly 2 centuries). The same thing could’ve happened with Simeon the Great – in the battle at Aheloi his horse was killed. The curious thing is that he, as a young man, who loves battles, was appointed like Kliment, Naum and Angelarius as a… monk and as such – sent to the Magnaur school. Tzar Boris I was obviously preparing him for an archbishop or a patriarch of the Bulgarian church. The task of Kliment, Naum and Angelarius was other – to master the literacy of Slavic language and one day to transfer it to Bulgaria together with the translations of Cyril and Methodius and after that to organize it’s introduction in all the parishes and eparchies in Bulgaria. Such were the times – boys, born to command cavalry corpuses, had to be engaged with religious, and the connected to them educational, matters. But I insist to emphasize – these were again strategical issues from a high statesmanlike importance. Practically Kliment, Naum and their teachers Cyril and Methodius are forging one terrific and invincible weapon for the Bulgarian people with might and power greater than all the country’s cavalry corpuses altogether. Because the Bulgarian sword has been broken several times in our 14 centuries of history, but the Bulgarian written word – never. And every time, when it seemed that with Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people is over, there was a man to shout from the pages of some booklet that the Bulgarian should be proud that he’s a Bulgarian, because the Bulgarians have history and therefore they have rights and future.
By the way, the accepting of Kliment, Naum and Angelarius in the group of Cyril and Methodius is another proof that the two brothers were working in close collaboration with Tzar Boris I. They couldn’t have not known that Kliment, Naum and Angelarius are Bulgarians, aristocrats and “foster children” of Tzar Boris I.
In these circumstances it is no longer a puzzle why the fate of Kliment, Naum and Angelarius is decisively different than the fate of the other students. After the news of the Cyril-Methodius’s students arrest came to Pliska, the German king was undoubtedly informed with a quick message from Tzar Boris that three of them are Bulgarian subjects, close to Boris aristocrats, sent personally by him to Velikomoravia and that he would be very pleased if they’ll be freed and sent back to Bulgaria as fast as possible to the closest to the border Bulgarian regional center. It wouldn’t be surprising if this center was specifically named – Belgrade, and the governor of Belgrade to have received instructions to expect them and, without wondering too much, to re-sent them to Pliska in the fastest way possible.
I’m convinced that the tone in Tzar Boris’s letter to the German king was, although kind and polite, firm enough. At that time the Bulgarian tzardom and the German kingdom were in a political and military alliance, but the bigger and stronger side was Bulgaria. In 829-831 AD it measured it’s strength with the German kingdom (in the times of Khan Omurtag and Ludovik the Pious) and the war ended with the full defeat of the German armies, while Bulgaria conquered Panonia (current day Hungary). The German king also knew how to make his accounts and obviously showed not even a tiny drop of hesitation, whether to ruin the valuable alliance with Bulgaria, because of three monks, which didn’t meddled in his affairs, while Boris wanted him only to extradite them from his country. And so he did, making sure that not a hair of the three Bulgarians heads shall be touched.
And so, what we know from books, articles, studies, movies and textbooks for Cyril and Methodius, Kliment and Naum is more or less a mythology. The author of the idea of a Bulgarian alphabet, writing and liturgies on Bulgarian language is not the two Solun brothers, but the Bulgarian khan (after 864 AD – tzar). Boris I decided to eliminate the only fundamental negative impact of the planned by him, in the beginning of his reign, announcement of Christianity as an official state religion – it’s preaching on the Greek language. He formed a strong team of Bulgarians, subjects of Byzantium and Bulgaria, which would create a Bulgarian alphabet, translate the liturgical books and with this form the Bulgarian written literary language. A canonical recognition of the Bulgarian language had been received from the legislators on this matters of that time (Rome and Constantinople), the needed amount of literate men and books had been prepared, as well as centers for their reproduction. This titanic work, stretching for nearly 40 years, happens with the political and solid financial support of the Bulgarian country, uninterrupted not even for a moment, and personally of its leader – Tzar Boris I. Of course, the merits of Cyril and Methodius are also enormous, having won the main battles in this long war, especially in the extremely uncomfortable conditions of hostile foreign surrounding, of Kliment and Naum, who did a work that then, and even now, is being done by large collectives.
Long before the historians, the Bulgarian people (in the Middle ages) seem to have understood that the work of the Slavic writing is a work of one team, and had rendered it’s homage to the cult of the “St. “Cyril and Methodius and their five disciples” (Bul. ed. the so called “Sedmochislenici Bulgarski” – the Seven “numbers” of men – Cyril, Methodius, Kliment, Naum, Angelarius, Sava and Gorazd) of Bulgaria”. A cult, in which all of the heroes of our story are a part of.
Hmm... Long... And probably filled with translation mistakes... But I'm not checking it for errors again! :nono:
Traveller
13-07-2005, 14:07
As I said to Mircoslavux in the Monarchy thread, here's the first part of the Bulgarian background (translated from a book, as always):
Bozhidar Dimitrov, “A story of Bulgarian history”
The Bulgarians
The creation of the Bulgarian state in the territories, populated with numerous different-speaking tribes, is connected with the Bulgarians. For their convenience, in order to distinguish them from the Bulgarian nation, formed in IX-X century on Slavic language basis, today’s historians call them Pra-Bulgarians or Proto-Bulgarians. They called themselves Bulgarians, so did the Byzantines call them, and all other nations, who knew them in this age. That’s why in the following story we’ll also call them only Bulgarians. The Franks, that created old France, were Germans, and the population of this country consists mainly of Galo-Romans and on this language the French people speak even today, but the French historians have never called them “Proto-French”. The same is in Russia – the Norman tribe of Russi, which never had anything to do with the Slavic people, was never called in the Russian historiography “Pra- or Proto-Russians”.
The origin and the original home of the Bulgarian tribes were an object of studies in the past and today, and have provoked many hypotheses and frantic arguments. And this will probably be like that for a long more time. The scarcity of clear and reliable sources could hardly be filled.
And yet, in the last years of the XX century a number of Bulgarian scholars, while studying Armenian and Indian sources, united around the opinion that at least in the VII century BC the Bulgarians populated the valleys and the plains to the West and North of Pamir – “called Mount Imeon” by the ancient sources. These are the fertile fields of today’s Northern Afghanistan. In the Antiquity this region was called Balkhari, i.e. Bulgaria – a number of specific sounds in the Slavic languages even today lead to the same pronunciation of the name of the Bulgarian country. The main city of the Bulgarians was Balkh. A city with the same name exists even today in Northern Afghanistan.
According to the same sources, the Bulgarians were Indo-Europeans from the Iranian racial and linguistic group. In the last quarter of the IV century BC the region of Balkhara, part of Baktria, a vassal of the huge Persian Empire, was invaded by the phalanges of Alexander the Great. The Bulgarians showed a stubborn resistance and Alexander was forced to seek an agreement. Balkhara accepted to be joined to the empire of Alexander the Great, while keeping some self-government. As a guarantee for this agreement tens thousands of Macedonians married to local girls. The empire of Alexander the Great fell apart after his death in 323 and the Macedonian soldiers stayed in the lands of Balkhara for good. Their Bulgarian descendants kept the memories of their ancient Macedonian ancestors till the late Middle Ages. Maybe this gave a reason to a number of medieval works of Bulgarian and Greek authors to declare the Bulgarians as descendants of the ancient Macedonians.
It seems that the Bulgarian tribes were numerous enough – between II and VI century considerable masses moved to Europe on at least three waves. They will go through serious losses during the so called barbaric raids over the Roman territories in the Old Continent and during internal tribal fights, and yet their demographic resources would be enough to create two mighty countries – near Volga and near Danube, and also to populate whole regions of other country formations.
Already in the II century some of the Bulgarian tribes stepped in the European continent, taking the plains between the Kaspian and the Black sea. In 354 here they’ll be noticed for the first time from a European chronicler. In the so called Anonymous Roman Chronograph their south border will be placed on the crest of the Caucasus. The snowy peaks of the Caucasus won’t stop them. The Armenian historian Moses Horenski will notice that between 351 and 389 Bulgarian tribes, led by their chief Vund, cross the Caucasus and migrate to Armenia. Toponymic data testifies that they remained there forever and centuries later were already assimilated by the Armenians.
Carried away with the Hun wave, that advanced towards Europe in the beginning of the IV century, other numerous Bulgarian tribes left their homes in Northern Afghanistan. They settle in the lands of the lower currents of the rivers Donec, Don and the Near-Azov, assimilating on their own turn the remains of the ancient Sarmatian tribes. A part of these tribes would remain for centuries in their new homes, while others would continue towards Central Europe together with the Huns and would inhabit Panonia and the plains around the Carpathians.
The Hunnish-Bulgarian co-operation lasted for the whole period between 377- 453, i.e. the time of the Hunnish hegemony in Central Europe. Their name is indeed rarely mentioned by the European authors of the time – the invaders, which fell down like a black cloud upon Europe, were identified with the cumulative concept “Huns”, but the serious modern researchers are probably right when they say that the striking force of Attila’s armies consisted mainly of Bulgarian cavalry. The ancient Bulgarians placed not by accident as head of the genealogy of the country’s statesmen from Kubrat’s dynasty Avitohol and Irnik, who are obviously identified with the famous Hunnish chief Attila and his son Ernakh.
And yet, some West-European authors mention the Bulgarians even in this age. This usually happens when battles mainly and only with them are described. Why the Panonian and Carpathian Bulgarians didn’t get along with the Langobards, we could only wonder today, but the frequent wars between them are a fact. Exactly thanks to them we know that in one battle the Bulgarians utterly defeated the Langobards, killed their king Egelmund and captured his daughter. After that they delivered another defeat on the new Langobard king Lamision.
The defeat of the Huns at the Catalonian fields led to disintegration of the Hunnish-Bulgarian alliance and to an independent expression of the Bulgarians on the international stage. In 480 Byzantium concluded their first agreement with them, hoping to use them as allies in the hard war with the invading Ostgoths. What kind of respect did the Bulgarian army have in this age could be seen in one enthusiastic eulogy of the Ost-Gothic poet Enodius for the Ost-Gothic chief, who only wounded lightly in battle the Bulgarian commander – in this eulogy the Bulgarians are described as supermen, as invincible warriors.
In 488 the Goths, pressed from Byzantines and Bulgarians, withdrew forever from the Balkan Peninsula. The bad things for Byzantium were just coming. During the 8 year campaign against the Goths, the Bulgarians, as Byzantine allies, had the chance to walk around freely in Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia, and obviously they liked these lands.
The era of the Bulgarian attacks over the European territories of the empire had begun.
Only five years after the Goths were expelled, the Bulgarian army invaded Thrace, defeated the Byzantine army and killed its commander Julian. The new and terrible danger was felt in Byzantium and emperor Anastasias I showed an unseen until then activity in the building of fortresses, but in 499 a new attack of the Bulgarians led to a new humiliating defeat. In the battle at river Curta (Zurta) the whole Illyrian army died. In 502 the Bulgarians took and pillaged whole of Thrace again.
From 513 the attacks of the Bulgarians over the European possessions of the empire became annual. And from 540 a completely new element could be seen – they no longer satisfied with pillage and abduction of the village population, but with the help with siege weapons they also started to conquer fortresses. Thus in this year, only in the region of Illyrik, they managed to take 32 of them and to kidnap their population together with great spoils.
It was more than clear that if things continue this way, Illyrik, Thrace, Moesia and Macedonia would become into devastated and emptied from population lands and at the end of the VI century they would be populated by Bulgarians. Fortunately for Byzantium, its diplomacy managed to provoke internal tribal fights between the two mightiest Bulgarian branches – the Kutriguri and the Utiguri. This temporarily stopped the invasions of the Bulgarians over Byzantium – the last one is marked by the chroniclers and dated in 562. In the next five-six decades the Slavic tribes would have the luck to inhabit today’s Bulgarian lands.
The participation of Bulgarian tribes in allied actions of other nations would gradually disperse a big part of them, settling in Central Europe. Thus in 568-569, when the Langobard king Alboin conquers three big regions in Northern Italy – Liguria, Lombardy and Etruria, the population that the king sends there consists not only of Langobard, but also of Bulgarian allied tribes from Panonia. The numerous Italian families Bulgari and Bulgarini (that could be met even today in Northern Italy) are a memory of the subsequently assimilated by the Italian people Bulgarians, brought by Alboin.
Other Bulgarian tribes, included in the Avar khaganat, take part in the Avar invasions against Byzantium and in 631-632 they lead a fierce fight for seizure of the ultimate power in the khaganat. They suffer a defeat and 9000 of them leave Panonia and settle into Bavaria (Bayern) at the Frankish king Dagobert. Unknown why, Dagobert, who accepted them well at first, ordered that all of them should be killed in one night. The 700 families that survived managed to fight their way out, crossed the Alps and arrived at Langobardia, where many of their country-men already lived. There they were finally accepted well and settled first in the region of Venice, and after 668 – in the depopulated coastal region of the Ravena exarchy – today’s Italian region of Kampobasso. Two hundred years later one ancient writer, known as Paul Deacon, visited them – they spoke Latin and Bulgarian. Of course, in the course of time they were assimilated in the Italian nation. But even today some areas in the Rimini and Ozimo regions are called “Bulgarian parts”, “Bulgarian land”, “land of the Bulgarian baron” etc.
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